The highly contagious Delta coronavirus variant has overtaken the other variants detected in the Philippines, the executive director of the Philippine Genome Center (PGC) said Monday.
“In the past, we had a lot of Beta and Alpha variants, but now our sequenced samples show that Delta has the most,” said Dr. Cynthia Saloma of the PCG.
In a separate briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the Delta variant has been detected in nearly all regions of the Philippines.
Vergeire, however, said almost half of the 338 samples subjected to genome sequencing in the latest run tested positive for the Delta variant.
“It seems the Delta variant proportion, based on this initial and very rough analysis, is really going up,” she said in Filipino.
During the Palace briefing, Saloma made a presentation showing a rapid increase of Delta variant cases globally from April to August this year. She said 42 percent of samples submitted to them are Delta variant cases.
“The rise in Delta variant cases is fast,” Saloma said.
The Philippines has recorded 807 Delta cases so far.
Saloma said the last two batches of specimens sequenced on Aug. 11 and 12 detected 359 Delta variant cases, way higher than the 142 cases of Alpha variant, 125 cases of Beta variant, and 54 cases of P.3 variant found during the same two days.
Of the 807 Delta variant cases in the country, 771 have recovered while 17 have died. There are still 14 active Delta variant cases.
The Department of Health (DOH) has said that one Delta variant patient can infect up to eight other people in one setting.
The Philippines on Monday logged 14,610 new COVID-19 cases, the third highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total number of infections to 1,755,846.
This was the third straight day that more than 14,000 fresh cases were reported.
Active cases climbed to 106,672, the country’s highest in nearly four months, or since April 21 when 114,210 active infections were recorded.
The COVID-19 death toll increased to 30,366, with 27 new deaths on Monday.
Some 10,674 additional people have recently recovered, pushing the total recoveries to 1,618,808.
Of the 106,672 active cases, 96.1 percent are mild, 0.9 percent are asymptomatic, 0.89 percent are moderate, 1.3 percent are severe, and 0.7 percent are in critical condition.
The COVID-19 positivity rate of the Philippines reached 23 percent while the total number of tests conducted was at 58,471.
The international standard for positivity rate must be less than 5 percent of COVID-19 samples.
Nationwide, 71 percent of the country’s intensive care unit beds are utilized, while 50 percent of the mechanical ventilators are also in use.
In Metro Manila, 72 percent of ICU beds are occupied while 53 percent of mechanical ventilators are in use.
Enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which imposes several movement restrictions, was imposed over Metro Manila, the country’s center of economy, until Aug. 20. Authorities have yet to declare an extension for the lockdown.
Recently, the Philippines also documented the first case of the Lambda variant, a coronavirus variant first detected in Peru.
Experts said there is no cause for alarm yet for the newly-detected variant in the Philippines as Delta variant is still the most concerning threat during the pandemic.
Independent researchers tracking the pandemic said the coronavirus reproduction number in the Philippines rose to 1.5 on Sunday.
The reproduction number, which refers to the number of people that each COVID-19 case can infect, was at 1.46 for the whole country from August 8 to 14. This was when the average new COVID-19 cases per day reached 11,000, the OCTA Research Group said on Sunday.
On Sunday, a health expert said more children are now being hospitalized with COVID-19 at the San Lazaro Hospital.
Dr. Rontgene Solante, chairman of the Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine unit of the San Lazaro Hospital, said this may be caused by the highly transmissible Delta variant.
“The transmissibility has now extended not only for adults but also to younger age groups. And most of the sources of these younger age groups are also coming from their parents or from their caretakers,” Solante said.
Earlier, the Department of Health (DOH) said an increase in COVID-19 infections in the country has been recorded in all age groups and not just among children.
The DOH issued the statement amid concerns over the reported increase in the number of children contracting COVID-19.
Dr. Jocelyn Eusebio, chief of the Philippine Pediatric Society, said children have strong resistance against COVID-19 but they could still be more vulnerable against the more transmissible Delta variant.
Parents or guardians should bring children to the hospitals when they experience high fever and difficulty in breathing, the Philippine Pediatric Society said Monday.
Around 10 percent of the country’s 1.7 million COVID-19 cases are children, the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) earlier said.
Children must be taught to wear masks and wash their hands using soap and water or use sanitizer or alcohol, said Dr. Cynthia Cuayo-Juico, pediatrician and fellow at the Philippine Pediatric Society.
“Let’s stay at home for now. Be vigilant if there are members of the household who go out and acquire symptoms because that may be the reason for getting infected,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
Parents must be on the lookout for the following symptoms, especially if any of the household members go outdoors or have been exposed to COVID-19: cough; fever; colds; and diarrhea.
They must also recall if their child has been vaccinated against flu or pneumonia, she said.
“What are the symptoms that a child must be brought to a hospital?
When the fever does not go down and has gone on for three days.
Secondly, when they experience difficulty in breathing,” she said.
If a child has fever, they must be given plenty of water, paracetamol, and be kept cool, Cuayo-Juico said.
“Don’t give them antibiotics. They don’t work for viral infections,” she said.
Also on Monday, the Philippine National Police Health Service recorded 106 new cases of COIVID-19 infection among PNP personnel bringing active cases to 1,970.
As of Aug. 16, a total of 30,402 PNP COVID-19 cases were recovered and were subsequently restored to full-duty status to perform regular police duties.
PNP Chief Gen. Guillermo Lorenzo T Eleazar said the deadly COVID-19 had claimed the life of a 50-year-old police officer assigned in Region 1 due to COVID-19.
“The deceased was tested positive on July 28, 2021, and was admitted to a nearby hospital, however, after 17 days of battling against the infectious disease, the said police officer succumbed and was recorded as the 92nd fatality,” Eleazar said.
On Sunday, the PNP recorded two more police fatalities due to COVID-19, bringing the PNP death toll to 91.
